Things are really speeding up around the instrumental music department as we prepare for our Holiday Concert on December 10th at 7:00 PM in the main gym. Tickets will be available on that night at the door for $5.

Preliminary permission slips for our trip to Cleveland over Memorial Day weekend are due on December 15th. You won’t want your child to miss this tremendous opportunity. Mr. Baum describes this trip as “one of my most cherished memories from high school.” The first installment of $100 is due on December 15th. If you have not received an itinerary please let us know and we’ll be sure to send one home with you student.

Both the Jazz Band and the Jazz Ensemble will be featured at “We are RB” on Wednesday night. Stop by the Little Theater between 6:30 and 8:00 to listen!

The Chamber Orchestra will be playing this weekend for a private event in Riverside. They will be playing holiday selections as well as movements from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. The group is available for hire through contacting Mr. Baum.

Congratulations to Molly Chaney, Kevin Dinh, and Ben Mitchell who were selected to represent RB at the IMEA All-State this January. This is a huge honor for these students and our school!

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

4th Hour Repertory Dance Ensemble students performed, "Our Favorite Son" to 90+ Veterans at the school wide assembly that took place on Wednesday, November 11, 2009.

The dancers commented on how nice it was to watch the faces of the Veterans as they performed. "This one guy was smiling the entire time," said Natasha Alvarez. "Did you see the one guy bobbing his head to the music...he was so cute," said Vilija Aleksa.

Jon Lehrer from Buffalo, NY visited RB the week of November 16, 2009. Mr. Lehrer is the founder and artistic director of the LehrerDance Company in Buffalo, NY. The Repertory Dance Ensemble dancers had an exciting week as they learned about momentum, the physics of movement and the benefits of moving in a circuclar manner vs linear. Mr. Lehrer choreographed a dance on the dancers which will be performed at the Home Dance Concert on January 15, 2010; in the little theatre. The dancers are looking forward to performing Mr. Lehrer's VERY athletic dance, titled FUSED, which fuses modern, ballet and hip hop dancing into one dance.

Monday, November 23, 2009

Congratulations to Sarah Buksa who just purchased a Buffet professional A Clarinet.

Also Congratulations to Molly Chaney, Kevin Dinh, Ben Mitchell, and Maddy Muntean who participated in IMEA District 1 Band, and to KenzoEsqivel who participated in District 1 Orchestra. These students rehearsed all day last Saturday on very challenging pieces with students from all over the Chicago land area.

Kevin Dinh, Ben Mitchell, and Sarah Otmanski all performed this weekend at Navy Pier with the Protege Philharmonic. This is an honors orchestra that features students from all over Chicago land. Great job!

All students have been fitted with concert uniforms. Students should have taken these home by now. Our thanks to Mrs. Strika and Mrs. Glavin for taking on this task!

Instrumental music students should begin selecting and rehearsing their contest solo and/or ensemble.

A reminder: we have terrific teachers that come out to the school every week to teach private lessons. These teachers teach at highly competitive rates. All students should strongly consider taking from these teachers, including any younger students you might have at the grade school. Please contact Mr. Baum for a list of teachers or to talk about their credentials.

Placement for 10-11 school year is coming up shortly. Any non-senior student in concert band, cadet band, jazz band, or who are coming over as a freshman next year should prepare scales and an etude for their audition. In-coming freshmen please contact Mr. McOlgan or Mr. Baum to schedule an audition.

Looking forward to our Holiday Concert on December 10th. Tickets are $5 and will not be pre-sold for this event.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

RBHS art students and artists from the Riverside Arts Center worked together to complete the large Fall panel on Quincy Ave. and the panels near the West entrance of the Arcade building. Students endured the cold weather during their days off of school last Thursday & Friday. Everyone is looking forward to the mural unveiling ceremony set for Dec. 4 at 5:00pm prior to the Holiday Stroll in downtown Riverside. We invite all student artists and their families to attend this exciting event!

On November 14, Stephanie Duve, Olivia Toriumi and Nathan Smith sang with the District 1 Vocal Jazz Ensemble. They were among the 32 fine singers selected through audition to participate in the IMEA Jazz Festival. OUr students sang under the direction of Mr. Jim Yarborough. The singers enjoyed the day and the music they sang. Stephanie and Olivia sang the solo section of their favorite piece, "Butterfly". As always, we had great parental support in the audience!

Monday, November 16, 2009

Congratulations to Elliot Louthen and Jim Sit who participated in this year’s IMEA District 1 Jazz Festival all day Saturday. Both played beautifully on very challenging repertoire.

Congratulations to Dennis Potamianos who was awarded to the rank of Eagle Scout last Sunday!

Another very exciting and busy week lies ahead of us.

All week students will be fitted for concert uniforms. Special thanks to Denise Stika for fitting all the students with their uniforms. Girls must provide their own white blouse and black dress shoes. Boys must provide their own white tux shirt, black socks, black dress shoes and bow tie. Bow ties and tux shirts are available in limited supply through the music department for $5 each. All uniforms will be coming home this week.

Also going home today is the preliminary permission slip for our Instrumental trip to Cleveland Ohio. This is a great trip for our department, we will be visiting the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, hearing the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, and spending a day at Cedar Point. A deposit is due on December 15th.

Ad Book sales (used to help fund the trip, or music sponsors) are due on Friday.

On Tuesday we will be hosting the Feeder School Band Festival. Over 100 students from Gross, Hauser, Komarek and our parochial schools will be here from 10:00 - 1:00 to rehears music and learn about band music offerings at RB.

On Wednesday night Orchestra students will be traveling down to Millennium Park's Harris Theater to hear the Chicago College of Performing Arts Orchestra play Beethoven's 3rd Symphony as well as CSO Principal Trombonist Jay Friedman and Principal Trumpet Chris Martin play 20th century works for their instruments.

Finally, on Saturday Molly Chaney, Kevin Dinh Kenzo Esquivel, Ben Mitchell, and Maddy Muntean will be participating in this year's IMEA District Festival. Congratulations, selection into this festival is a very high honor.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Mr. Singh & the Hauser Jr. High art students took a field trip to RB to help paint the Arcade Mural panels on Tues. Nov. 10. The students spent an entire day working on the summer panels & completing the art glass panel, which is seen above. Thank you Mr. Singh & all of the students for you help! We had a lot of fun & look forward to welcoming you as future Bulldogs!

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

This fall the RBHS ceramic students made Pop Art Sculptures by creating everyday objects out of glazed stoneware as posted above. To further their research process and gain exposure to contemporary artworks this group recently took a field trip to Navy Pier to enjoy the Sculptural Objects and Functional Art exhibit! http://www.sofaexpo.com/

Monday, November 9, 2009

What an exciting and short week ahead. After several weeks of preparation the Veterans Day Assemblies are upon us. Students are very much looking forward to treating our guests and the rest of the student body to a program filled with patriotic melodies in commemoration of the time our veterans spent on our behalf.

Last week all students in the music department received their ad book sales packet and their cheese cake sales packet. They should be out working to fund their trip and support the Music Sponsors.

This Saturday Jim Sit and Elliot Louthen will be performing at the District 1 IMEA Jazz Festival. This year's festival will be held at Lyons Township High School (south campus), this is a change from what is in the blue student handbook. Congratulations Jim and Elliot!

Also congratulations to instrumentalists Coleen Fruin, Dovas Lietuvninkas, Corey Reynolds, Nathan Smith, Aimee Patterson, and Alex Paterson and the rest of the cast and crew who had a terrific run with this year's fall play, The Murder Room!

Sunday, November 8, 2009

RBHS Drawing & Painting students, along with Art Club & St. Mary art students continued to work on the panels for the Riverside's Arcade This Place Matters Mural. The students worked long days, nights & weekends to complete the four Spring Season Panels. The panels included imagery of Riverside's Library, the swing bridge, the Des Plaines River & Swan Pond. We would like to thank Noelle Bajohr, one of RB's librarian / computer lab assistant, for finding a great book on Riverside's history. The book provided wonderful pictures & information on the village's past that helped us complete the panels! We can't forget about all of the local artists, Gail Sellers, Jenifer Henderson-Taylor, Nancy Hejna & more for all of the assistance too. This upcoming week we look forward to hosting Hauser art students on Tuesday Nov. 10 & traveling onsite to work on the Arcade Building on Thursday Nov. 12 & Friday Nov. 13. Stay tuned for more mural updates!

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Justin Zuschlag from the University of Indiana taught an intermediate/advanced level modern dance class on Friday, November 6, 2009. Dancers enjoyed taking class from a guest teacher and watching a promotional dvd on the contemporary dance program at the university. Justin answered questions and invited the students to attend the university's annual fall dance audition and Dance Gala. A special thank you to Justin for sharing his passion for dance with us here at RB. The dancers are anxious to work with Justin again.

On Friday, October 30, 2009 the RB Repertory Dance Ensemble performed at the North Shore Performing Arts Center in Skokie, Illinois. The dancers were selected to perform two dances as part of the Chicago Dance Festival's Dance Slam series. Our Favorite Son and C'mon were well received by a sold out audience. John Schmitz, artistic director of the festival, said, "Our Favorite Son was one of my favorites and Jon Lehrer was really happy to hear is work (C'mon) was being performed by RBHS." RDE looks forward to performing Our Favorite Son for the Veteran's Day Assembly on Wednesday, November 11th's at 9:15am.

Monday, November 2, 2009

Were are very excited to have the entire music department perform at the Veterans Day assembly.

It's not too early to begin thinking about the solo and ensemble contest coming up this February.

The Chamber Orchestra performed last Wednesday for the Fine Arts Survey "Informance". They played the first movement from Vivaldi's "Autumn" beautifully after three early morning rehearsals. The Chamber Orchestra is a newly formed group dedicated to playing original literature. To hire this orchestra for your private events please contact Mr. Baum.

Be sure to watch the WGN Morning News on Monday, November 9th as the Shout Section Big Band will be featured on their "Around Town" segment. Ms. Pilson, S.E. Gross' Band Director, and Mr. Baum are both members of this Big Band.

The Ad book information will be sent home on Tuesday. Students should begin to sell ads for our holiday concert program as soon as they receive this packet. Proceeds from this fundraiser can be used to help fund this year's Instrumental Music trip.